Joan Elkin painted as part of her daily routine in her studios in St. Louis Missouri for more than a half a century. She was too busy living her life, taking care of her husband, the award-winning novelist Stanley Elkin, raising her three children, traveling the world, exercising, running, enjoying the symphony, opera, theater, entertaining, cooking, creating, laughing, reading, gardening, dancing, list-making, and learning, to have an inch of space or time left to market her work. Even so, over the years, she enjoyed commercial success when galleries, commissions, and book publishers knocked on her door. Here are some of those times she enjoyed the limelight:

Solo Exhibitions

  • Left Bank Books, St. Louis 2004

  • Creative Gallery, St. Louis, 1998Creative Gallery, St. Louis, 1992

  • Sazaama/Brauer Gallery, Chicago, 1987

  • Fontbonne College, St. Louis, 1986

  • Maryville College, St. Louis, 1983

  • Galerie Rouff, St. Louis, 1976

  • The Mark Twain Gallery, St. Louis, 1974

  • The Studio Gallery, Carbondale, Illinois, 1967

Group Exhibitions (* Juried Exhibitions)

  • Sharing Images: African-American and Jewish Artists,Maryville University, St. Louis, 1996

  • Small and Miniature Paintings and Works on Paper, Aaron Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1995*

  • Contemporary Women Artists of St. Louis, Washington University, 1987*

  • Sazama/Brauer Gallery Inaugural Exhibition, Chicago, 1987*

  • Autumn Fest ‘85, University of Arkansas*

  • Our Lives: The Experience of Women, University of Kansas, 1985*

  • St. Louis Art Festival, 1985

  • St. Louis West End Art Council Studio Tour and Exhibition, 1984

  • The Artists’ Guild, St. Louis, 1977*

  • University of Missouri Women’s Show, St. Louis, 1976*

  • The Munson Gallery, New Haven, 1975

  • The Artists’ Guild, St. Louis, 1966*

SPECIAL

Book Covers and Reproductions of Work in Literary Magazines

  • Lauren’s Line, University Press of Mississippi, 2004, Book Cover (color reproduction of oil painting entitled Jarvis Thurston and his Circle)

  • Review of Contemporary Fiction, Fall 2004 issue (reproduction of painting of novelist William Gass and his wife Mary entitled Nice, France 1988)

  • Provincetown Arts, 1999 (black and white reproduction of oil painting of novelist Stanley Elkin entitled Winter)

  • Pieces of Soap, Simon & Schuster, 1992, Book Cover (color reproduction of oil painting entitled Winter)

  • Review of Contemporary Fiction, Summer 1992 issue (reproduction of painting of novelist Jerome Charyn entitled Parkview)

  • Searches and Seizures, David Godine, Publisher, 1988, Book Cover (color reproduction of oil painting entitled Breadloaf Chairs #3)

  • The Franchiser, David Godine, Publisher, 1988, Book Cover (color reproduction of oil painting entitled Breadloaf Chairs #2)

  • The Franchiser, David Godine, Publisher, 1980, Book Cover (color reproduction of oil painting)

  • Cover art for Studio Set, KWMU-FM National Public Radio program guide, November, 1985

  • Frontispiece for women’s issue of River Styx Magazine, 1984 (Reproduction of oil painting entitled Zelda and Rose)

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Washington University commissioned and purchased two oil paintings, Jarvis Thurston and His Circle, 1982 and The English Department, 1992. Both paintings were reproduced in color and used for the English Department Graduate Programs Posters yearly from 1985 through 1995. The English Department was selected and reproduced as the English Department’s “Home Page” artistic graphic for its Web site.

  • Choreographer, Ross Winters, commissioned and purchased designs for costumes for Mid-America Dance Company’s production of Notes Toward a Eulogy for Joan Cohen, 1987